Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Three arrested in New York death of ventilator-dependent resident

In a December 28th press release,
Eric Schneiderman, the Attorney General of New York, announced the
arrest of two registered nurses and a certified nurse aide in connection
with the death of an 81-year-old ventilator dependent resident of the
A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale, NY.

According to the press release

The resident, whose identity is
being kept confidential, lived on a specialized ventilator unit at the
facility. She required a mechanical ventilator to breathe and was
entirely dependent on the nursing staff; the resident passed away after
the defendants failed to respond to the ventilator alarms. If convicted,
the defendants, none of whom still work at the facility, each face up
to seven years in prison.

“These allegations paint a picture of blatant neglect that ultimately resulted in the death of a patient,”

“My office will always hold
accountable those medical professionals and others who knowingly ignore a
patient’s basic needs or recklessly place any nursing home resident in a
life-threatening situation.”

The media release described the case:

The complaint alleges that on the
morning of December 20, 2015, the resident–who was wheelchair bound and
ventilator dependent–became disconnected from her ventilator. The
resident was unable to breathe without the assistance of her mechanical
ventilator. A visual and audible alarm was immediately triggered which
notified nursing staff on the floor that this resident was in an
emergency, life-threatening situation.

Sijimole Reji, Annieamma
Augustine and Martine Morland were at the nursing station near the
resident’s room when the alarm sounded throughout the unit. All nursing
staff who work on the ventilator unit at A. Holly Patterson Extended
Care Facility are required to immediately respond to resident ventilator
alarms. These three defendants–Reji, Augustine and Morland–ignored the
emergency ventilator alarm for more than nine minutes and failed to
provide any assistance to the resident who languished without oxygen.

Eventually, when staff entered
her room, they discovered that the resident was unresponsive and
unconscious. The resident was transported from A. Holly Patterson
Extended Care Facility to Nassau University Medical Center, where she
died the following day, December 21, 2015.

Deaths and abuse in care homes is not uncommon. Recently a nurse was
charged in the deaths of eight people who lived in care homes in
Woodstock and London Ontario.

The victim’s life was in the hands of her care-givers. Data from
Belgium shows that a significant number of lives are ended each year
without request. Usually these people are incompetent or completely
dependent on their care-givers.

1 comment:

Finny
said...

This gives me great hope. I have seen several of these stories on the NASGA blog lately involving different states and AGs getting involved in nursing home abuse and neglect cases and I hope the trend continues to grow.

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